Angus Council says survey shows tenants are satisfied

Angus Council says the results of a survey show eight out of 10 of its tenants are satisfied with the housing service it provides.

The council commissioned the Knowledge Partnership to carry out an independent tenants’ satisfaction survey involving 1000 of its tenants earlier this year in accordance with the Scottish Social Housing Charter.

It highlights that satisfaction in the service it provides is improving, with 83% of its tenants being very or fairly satisfied.

This is a 5% improvement on 2015’s survey.

Yesterday’s Communities Committee heard the results of the face-to-face survey and the responses received about what people did and didn’t like about the service.

The authority carries out surveys every year, but this was the largest group it has surveyed and the first to be carried out by an outside agency.

Communities convener Donald Morrison said: “It is very encouraging to see the levels of customer satisfaction in our housing service which indicate that we are very much moving in the right direction.

“I am grateful to every tenant who took the opportunity to be involved in this survey and am also greatly appreciative of the excellent work undertaken by our housing team.

“But we are not complacent about the service we provide and a survey of this scale will help greatly to shape future priorities.

“Where issues have been identified, we have listened and will take action to continue the improvements in our service and raise levels of tenant satisfaction higher still.”

The survey also reported that –

• 87% of tenants are satisfied with the quality of their home (up from 69% in 2015)

• Satisfaction in the condition of re-let housing is 90% (up from 81% in 2015)

• 82% are satisfied with neighbourhood management (up from 70% in 2015)

• 77% of tenants are satisfied they are kept informed (up from 76% in 2015)

• 63% are satisfied with participation opportunities (compared to 62% in 2015).

• While 82% of our tenants are satisfied with the repairs we carry out, this represents a drop from 97% reported in last year’s survey.

An Angus Council spokesperson said: “We’ll be working closely with our tenants to improve our performance in the year ahead and are already taking a number of actions.

“These include, working with other departments to improve aids and adaptations for our tenants and implementing recommendations by our Scrutineers’ (tenant representatives) review of our repairs service.

“We are also providing opportunities for tenants to move to new build properties; upgrading existing properties through the bathroom replacement programme; improving condition of relets through the application of the relet standard; and improving value for money for rents and service charges.”